A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a partner, has captured a massive stream of gas—one trillion miles, or .2 light years long—feeding the young triple-star system GW Orionis.
Astronomers studying a rare stellar explosion first spotted as a brief burst of X-rays used radio observations to help show that the dying star did not produce the powerful jet often associated with gamma-ray bursts.
These joint efforts support the pathfinder for ngVLA technologies, focusing on very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) capabilities that enable ultra-sharp imaging of the Universe.
Using the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA) radio telescope, which is operated by the U. S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO), the team detected polarized light from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow for the first time at radio wavelengths.